Jaguars 2017 position grades: Offensive guards

In today’s positional review we’ll be taking a look that is widely viewed as a weakness on the Jacksonville Jaguars’ roster by many and that’s the offensive guard position.

The two players who were named the Week 1 starters at both guard positions, Patrick Omameh and A.J. Cann, had pretty average seasons. The Jags’ interior offensive line started the season strong and were able to eventually propel the team to become the No. 1 rushing attack, but midway through the season, they cooled down. Ultimately, Omameh and Cann finished the season with grades of 53.6 and 52.5, respectively, via Pro Football Focus.

During the process of the season, Cann missed just one game, while Omameh missed three. Of the two, most feel that Cann had the better season despite Omameh’s PFF score being slightly higher. After poor midseason performances, Cann came on strong in Weeks 17 and 18 with back to back top-5 PFF performances for the Jags’ roster and paved some decent lanes for Leonard Fournette in the trenches. Omameh had a similar midseason stretch but had a solid performance against the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line during the divisional round, acquiring the team’s second-highest grade of 84.9, only under Brandon Linder.

When filling in for Cann against the Cincinnati Bengals, Linder had a good showing at the right guard position. Chris Reed, who filled in for Omameh in his three absences, wasn’t overly impressive and finished the regular season with a final grade of 44.2, via PFF.

Overall, I think the Jags could use two new starting guards who are a bit more consistent, but could use a replacement for Omameh more than Cann. On top of that, Omameh will be a free agent in March, which means they may look for a replacement in the draft or free agency. The Jags could also afford to have better depth at the position, which is why it will be interesting to see how many interior offensive linemen the Jags add in the offseason.

Overall grade: C-

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